1. Field of the Invention
The apparatus of the present invention relates generally to hydraulically driven wire spoolers and more particularly to a wire spooler with compensating means to provide constant linear winding speed and means for manually adjusting the base winding speed of the spooler.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The apparatus of the present invention is concerned with electro-mechanical systems for coiling or spooling wire after a wire-drawing operation, and is designed to be used generally in conjunction with a wire-drawing machine. Typical wire-drawing machines operate continuously by drawing or reducing in cross sectional area a coil of steel rod weighing several hundred pounds into wire totalling several thousand feet in length. These wire-drawing machines operate continuously with the drawn wire exiting the machine at linear speeds of approximately 3,500 feet per minute. Upon exiting the drawing machine, the drawn wire may be accumulated temporarily in coils on one of several accumulator blocks. As one block becomes filled with coiled wire, the wire will be permitted to accumulate on other blocks. A wire spooling machine, of the type contemplated by the present invention, receives the drawn wire from the accumulator blocks and coils it on removable spools. Generally, as a given spool is filled with wire, the spooling machinery stops and the filled spool is rotated to a removable position, and removed from the machine. An empty spool is then rotated into the coiling position and the machine is again permitted to operate, coiling wire on the empty spool. During this sequence of events, the wire drawing machine is continuously operating with the wire being accumulated on the accumulator blocks.
It can readily be seen that the spooler must be operated at linear wire speeds in excess of that of the wire drawing machine in order to coil the wire which has accumulated between spool changes. However, in order to avoid the condition where the wire spooling machine must be stopped in order to allow additional wire to accumulate on the accumulator blocks, the spooling machine must be operated at such a speed so as to cause less than all the accumulated wire to be exhausted before the spool has been filled.
Depending on the speed of the wire drawing machine and the extent of delay of spool changes, there can be calculated some constant linear speed at which the spool must operate so as to cause the spool to become full simultaneously with the exhausting of the accumulated wire. It is an object of the present invention to provide means whereby an operator of this type of machine can establish this constant linear speed, thereby optimizing the efficiencies of the wire drawing and wire spooling machines.
Various methods have been devised for controlling the speed of wire spooling machines. One method contemplates that the wire coil be driven by an endless flat belt in contact with the outside diameter of the coil. While this method produces good speed control it is of limited practical utility in that linear wire velocities in excess of 1,500 feet per minute cannot generally be achieved. Another approach using a wire coil driven by an eddy current electrical clutch has been shown to permit maximum practical wire drawing velocities of 3,500 feet per minute, but suffers from poor speed control. Wire spoolers driven by direct current motors give good speed control and are also capable of driving the spools at maximum practical wire drawing velocities of 3,500 feet per minute; however, direct current supplies for this type of motor are often unavailable or prohibitively expensive.
It has been found that wire spooling machines employing hydraulically driven motors overcome many of these drawbacks, while at the same time providing simplified provision for speed control. The present invention contemplates an improved means for adjusting the linear speed of such a hydraulically driven variable speed wire spooler.